Butterfly 3000
Way before King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard dropped this, their 18th studio album in less than a decade, it was clear that the Melbourne six-piece refuses to stay tethered to one idea for too long. So after completing a three-album experiment in microtonal tuning—playing notes that exist between the notes on standard Western scales—with February 2021’s *L.W.*, it’s no surprise to find them poking the reset button again. This time, they’re underscoring the pop in psych-pop with a song suite that funnels their wide-eyed ambition through satisfyingly direct melodies. All built from arpeggiated synth loops, the songs skip off in divergent directions, including the motorik rush of opener “Yours,” shimmering cosmic disco (“Catching Smoke”), and celestial synth-pop (“Interior People”). The scope of the band’s adventure would be dizzying if it weren’t for the smooth turns they forge in and out of each track. In a year marked by lockdowns and limited choices, trust The Giz to have created music that feels so boundless and upbeat.
Album number 18 was recorded in the band’s homes during the pandemic, and trades psych-rock blitzes for a finely-woven sprawl of synth programming and MIDI sequences
It’s no hot Gizz summer, but 18 albums in and the Aussie garage-psych rockers are far from burning out any time soon
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have made a career of exploring new sounds, taking left turns, and doing the unexpected in glorious fashion.
The first quarter of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's latest album, Butterfly 3000, sounds like you're looking through a technicolour kale...
In the height of lockdown last year, Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard did a meticulous track breakdown of their single ‘Honey’ on KEXP’s ‘Isolated Tracks’ series.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard aren’t really a psychedelic rock band. It’s a useful, off-hand label for a group that’s so genre